Chinchilla Community Forums
Chinchillas => Health => Topic started by: Chins4pets on October 25, 2016, 10:14:08 AM
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Buy a small digital scale. I picked one up from Bed Bath and Beyond and once or twice a week I weigh my Chins. Turn on the scale. Set it to grams.Place a container on the scale and zero it out. Place the chin in the container and note the weigh. Write it down (I have it in my smartphone) and keep track of any weigh drop. When your dealing this an animal that only weighs 700 or 800 + grams, it's very hard to tell when they loose weight. This will save you money at the vet if a problem is caught in time and most of all it will save your Chins life. That's all you have to do to prevent what happened to me. Today would have been the birthday of my Chinchilla that I had lost. I found out the hard way that Chins will hide their illness and will make it harder for the owner to discover. I had no idea of the problem with my Bella until it was too late. I had her and her sister both examined a few month earlier and they were in great shape. Within that time she developed a problem with her teeth and didn't know it. She showed no signs of drooling or anything. I hope my mistake with Bella will at least save another.
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Unfortunately animals with tooth problem rarely ever recover or survive. It's important to handle your pet so it cannot fall on its face, and most importantly to constantly feed a proper diet. Breeding can also be a factor. There are still many treatable illnesses that can be detected by regularly weighing your pet, about once a week. When chinchillas stop eating, that in itself causes severe digestive complications and quickly turn a treatable illness into a fatal one.
Also check daily food and water consumption.
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Scales are great to have to monitor health. Unfortunately though teeth issues are rarely curable, so don't feel bad about not noticing it sooner